shirt. and she on her own has ended this program or will end it by the end of january, along with doing some other things relative to debt-to-income. so i think she technically is very proficient. i know that there are members of this body today that may work against her because they're very dissatisfied with what has been happening at f.h.a. and, candidly, much of that is us. we need to pass some legislation to deal with f.h.a. and we've been resistant to do that. i know that johnny isakson and david vitter and others in our body have been pushing for us to address that. i know the president, the presiding officer today, we serve on the banking committee together and we know that reforms need to take place. but here's what i would say. the main reason f.h.a. is in the problem that it's in is due to loans that were made back in 2006, 2007, 2008 and the beginning of 2009. and what's happening is the

losses from those loans are just now kicking in. and there's no question that f.h.a. has some issues relative to their economic value. but there have been five increases in rates at f.h.a. just in recent times to try to get it back where it needs to be. so what i would say to my friends on this side of the aisle is, if we think that f.h.a. can get better by not having a director, i find that to be kind of strange. i mean, sheers there acting -- she's the acting director since david stevens left. but it seems to me we'd be much better having somebody in that position that's actually accountable and is able to bring permanent staff on with her so that they know they're going to be there to deal with the issues that need to be dwelt at f.h.a. -- dealt with at f.h.a. so again, i think i've spent about as much time with her as anybody in this body. i know senator isakson has done the same. but i find her to be very technically proficient. i've seen her just in recent

weeks do some things that i think are bold relative, again, to debt-to-income ratios with some of the f.h.a. participants. we ourselves, candidly, again, we need to do something about the loan amounts at f.h.a. there are at 729 now. at some point they probably need to be dropping down once h we gt the rest of the market working in the fashion that they should be. but, mr. president, i just want to say that i wholeheartedly support her in this position. there's a loft work that needs to -- there's a lot of work that needs to take place at f.h.a. i think she's somebody that has the ability to carry that out. and the biggest issue with f.h.a. right now, candidly, is this body and the folks down the hallway passing legislation to deal with overall housing finance. i know senator isakson from georgia's going to be very involved in that. i hope to be involved with that. my guess is the presiding officer is going to be involved in that. and yet today, my sense is we

need to go ahead and have someone who's actually running f.h.a. to cause it to work better. and i hope my colleagues on this side of the aisle, as many as can, will join in, give her strong support today and then work closely with her to cause f.h.a. to be the kind of place that it ought to be. and it certainly -- i agree with the senator from georgia -- shouldn't have the market share that it has today. but a big part of that, again, a big part of that has to do with our inaction in this body and our inability to -- to thus far deal with g.s.e. so i hope many will join in supporting carol galante. with, that mr. president, i yield the floor. -- with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. mrs. boxer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: mr. president, how much time remains on either side on this nomination? the presiding officer: 13 minutes for the majority. mrs. boxer: okay. could you let me know when i've gone four minutes because i want to save time for senator -- the presiding officer: the charity will notify. mrs. boxer: well, mr. president, i want to thank very much my

colleague, senator cork, for his remarks -- colleague, senator corker, for his remarks and join in with his support for this very able person, carol galante. she has a long and distinguished career of building and promoting affordable housing and she's very well qualified. she began her career as a housing coordinator for the city of santa barbara, rising to become the city's housing and redevelopment manager. and i would point out, santa barbara is a magnificent part of my state. i have a beautiful state. and they didn't have much in the way of moderate income housing, and i think it was very important the work that she did. she moved on to eden housing, a nonprofit affordable housing developer, where she developed over 400 homes as a project manager. and she took over as executive director. later she joined bridge housing as vice president, and in 1996, she took the helm of that organization as its president and chief executive. bridge is the largest nonprofit

developer of affordable mixed-income and mixed-use developments in california. and while she was there, carol oversaw the creation of over 13,000 affordable homes for more than 35,000 californians and programs that helped one-fourth of their residents advance to homeownership. because she knew that was the goal. homeownership even after all we've been through is the dream, and she understands that. so, in 2009, president obama appointed her as h.u.d.'s deputy assistant secretary for mult ifamily housing programs. she oversaw a $50 obama portfolio of -- she oversaw a $50 billion portfolio. at a time when support was desperately needed, she took a smaller staff and grew annual lending from $2.5 billion to over $10 billion. she as served for a year now as acting commissioner for f.h.a., where she's worked to weed out

bad lenders, ensuring greater stability and increasing counseling, resources for borrowers because as we look over what happened in the housing sector, we know people bought homes who shouldn't have bought homes, lenders took advantage of them, and everybody was in the mix in terms of why things went so sour. carol's accomplishments have been recognized through numerous honors, including inductions into the hall of fame by bay area business leaders in california. she's been recognized by the california home building and the california housing suprem conso, so she gets support from everybody, from the builders, from the homeowners, from the renters. she has strong support of a broad coalition, and i'd ask unanimous consent to place in the record a letter from the mortgage bankers association. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: a letter from -- it looks to me like two or three

dozen other housing organizations smed i would ask to put that in as well. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: and i would like to read from a letter that we received -- actually, the majority and minority leaders got a letter from the mortgage bankers association, the national association of home build,and the national association of realtors. so these are the business people, and this is what they said about her. "carol galante will bring tremendous expertise and commitment to strengthening the programs. her decades of work in the affordable housing give her a unique perspective on the issues facing our nation's housing and mortgage markets." so here we have a person who understands the business side and she understands the renters and the owners -- the presiding officer: the senator has used four minutes. mrs. boxer: i'll ask for an additional 30 seconds, please. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: so you have someone to understands the business side, the renters'

side, the homeownership side, and i'm very proud that this woman is a californian. i know there's lots of issues within f.h.a. -- we all have to work on this. we've heard that from senator corker. but my goodness, we want someone in there who can work with us. shies a the perfect person. i yield the floor. mr. lieberman: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator connecticut. mr. lieberman: thank the chair. mr. president, in a short while the senate will vote on two nominees for service in the executive branch of our government, and i rise today to speak in support of one of those two, which is william b.a.e., -- william baer, who's been nominated to serve as assistant attorney general, managing the antitrust division of the u.s. department of justice. mr. president, i happen to have come to know bill baer

personally, because practices flaw a firm with a very good friend and neighbor of mine here in washington. and in that remarks i can certainly testify to the -- and in that regard, i can certainly testify to the fact that he's an honorable, interesting, enjoyable person, but that alone doesn't qualify him to hold this high office. he has extraordinary experience. i would say that he is very, very widely acknowledged as one of the best antitrust lawyers in our country, and i would say that this nomination is really a merit-selection nomination. and i'll get to that. he graduated from lawrence university and the school of law at stanford university. he has served with distinction throughout his career, earning accolades such as recognition as the washington, d.c., antitrust lawyer of the year by "best

lawyers" and as well as one of the decade's most influential shall lawyers by the "national law journal." he's currently head of the antitrust practice group, a very distinguished proud firm based in washington, arnold & porter. and there he draws and his on his 35 years of experience in civil and criminal investigation to manage that work in the area of antitrust litigation, international cartel investigations, and merger and acquisition reviews. in an earlier chapter in his life, bill baer served over several periods at the f.t.c., rising from a trial attorney general during his first term there in 1975 to serve as assistant to the chairman, then assistant general counsel, and between 1995 and 1999 as

director of the bureau of competition. but here's the point that i think really speaks to the fact that bill baer's nomination to head the antitrust division is nonpartisan and based on his extraordinary capabilities. his nomination has received a letter of support signed by 12 prior assistant attorney generals for the antitrust division of the department of justice who served between 1972 and 2011, and these, therefore, include people who've led the antitrust division from president nixon through presidents of both political parties to president obama. his nomination has also received a letter of support signed by each chair of the section on antitrust law of the american bar association, who has served

as chair of that section between 1977 and 2011. so 29 of the most practitioner d proketicianers of antitrust -- practitioners of antitrust law have written in support of this nomination. and i just wanted to take this opportunity then -- it really is an honor to not just thank the president for this nomination but really to thank bill baer for being willing to leave a quite successful law practice to return to service of our country in an area that's critically important to our free-market economy in which he happens to be one of our nation's foremost experts. so i hope my colleagues will

support the nomination of bill baer when it comes to a vote very soon this afternoon. i thank the chair and yield the floor. mr. shelby: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. shelby: mr. president, i would like too tak to take a fes this afternoon to explain why i will be opposing this nomination and why i encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do the same. this nomination, mr. president, is not one of the many go-along-to-get-along nominations as we do obviously i-- as we do often in the senat. this nomination will have a direct effect on our pocketbooks and demands our attention today. carol galante has been the acting assistant secretary and the federal housing commissioner at the department of housing and urban development since july 2011. therefore, this nomination vote in a sense will serve as a referendum of sorts on the current management of the

federal housing administration. mrs. galante in her role as acting f.a.a. commissioner has failed, mr. president, to take serious actions to shore up the solvensolvency and prevent a tar bailout of the federal housing streasmghts the latest actuarial report shows that f.h.a. has a negative economic value and a taxpayer bailout is most likely. despite these warnings, f.h.a. waited until april of 2012 to raise additional premiums and secretary donovan, secretary of h.u.d., has testified to the senate banking committee that it will wait until next year to increase premiums by a meager 10 basis points. despite having statutory authority to do more to protect the taxpayers. ms. gallon lay tai has deathed the true -- ms. galante has

denied the true severity of the problems. last year she said, "there's no evidence or widespread prediction that home prices are going to decline to the kind of levels that would require a bailout." really? yet, although some prices have risen slightly, the f.h.a.'s financial position continues to deteriorate. several experts now conclude that a taxpayer bail outis simply a matter of time, mr. president. the 2012 actuarial report and the disastrous state of the f.h. e.a.s. finances led "the washington post" editorial beard to conclude, "right now the critics are starting to look pretty pressing. government support foreclosure ssessive borrowing has turned into a national nightmare." the f.h. e.a.s. capital reserve is still well below the level determined by congress to be the

bare minimum to cover f.h. e.a.s. future losses. even though f.h.a. narrowly avoided a bailout this year, dangers remain in the years ahead due to its over $1 trillion, mr. president, exposure to risky loans and precarious economic conditions. most of the f.h.a.'s recent actions have only concealed these dangers. for example, instied of adequately raising insurance premiums over the life of the loan, f.h.a. has measured -- has increased upfront premiums to simile cover losses in the short term. loss, upfront premiums can be rolled into the mart balance therefore decreasing equity for borrowers o increasing the upfront premiums could make f.h.a. loans even riskier for both the borrower and the taxpayer who stands behind the mortgage. i believe it's time to face the reality that the federal housing

administration's dangerou dangey undercapitalized and because of the lack of serious refor, f.h.a. teeters on the brink of a bailout. andrew kaplality n said, "they, the f.h.a., are doing very badly. there is no two ways about t over the next five years there won't be enough of an economic recovery to fix f.h. e.a.s. finances, not a chance." a study by a wharton professor estimateestimates that an f.h.at could cost between $50 billion and $100 billion and warned that only a quick and substantial economic and house being market recovery can avoid substantial loses for the american taxpayer. data from the actuarial report shows that the serious delinquency rate for all f.h.a. loans is 9.6%. the delinquency rate for loans originated in 2006, 2007, & 2008

are between 20% and 30%, mr. president. approximately 739,000 loans are seriously delinquent and increase over 100,000 loans from last year. if the borrowers of these loans all default on their mortgages, it would result in a $57 billion claims to the f.h.a. we hope that won't happen. the f.h.a.'s latest quarterly report shows capital resources of $32 billion. it also states that cash flow from operations which largely consistent of premium revenues covered only 80% of net claims last quarter. the latest actuarial report 2012 confirms that f.h.a.'s finances are dramatically worse than last year. mr. president, f.h.a.'s capital ratio that is gone negative for the first time since 1991 and the economic value is in excess of a negative $16 billion.

last year the report projected a $9.4 billion value, reining a decline of $24.9 -- $24.9 billion. the projected loss on outstanding business is an all-time $39 billion. f.h.a. has leverage is leveraged has a sparse $2.5 billion equity cushion on its over $1 trillion portfolio. think about it. f.h.a. is estimated its loan losses every year forethe past three years. in addition, since the treasury department already has called permanent and indefinite port authority to provide funding for the f.h. rae, bailout of the f.h.a. could occur without, as you know, mr. president